Summer is over and all of us have to go back to school or to work in the real world. The endless 'NiGHTS' of playing video games until dawn are over - until Christmas, that is.
The summer had a fair mix of disappointment and surprise. The disappointment was the certain lack of a summer smash hit game. The big surprise was how good Super Mario 64 was.
The big rave of autumn is Sega Saturn's NiGHTS, touted as the best thing since jam doughnuts. One of the reasons is that the game was created by Yuji Naka, who created Sonic the Hedgehog, which has now spawned a host of merchandising items. The second is that the game will provide a 3-D type of play.
The game revolves around a being called NiGHTS who exists in a dream world called Nightopia, which just happens to have some evil bad guy called Wizeman threatening to destroy this wonderland. Wow, where have we heard this before? Apparently NiGHTS is a creation of this bad guy, and was supposed to be a part of his evil horde called the Nightmarens. For some reason, NiGHTS refused to be one of Wizeman's evil cronies or listen to any authority figure. The teens will love this. NiGHTS then enlists the help of Elliot Edwards and Claris Sinclair to help free him and help make the demise of Wizeman a reality.
Though the game is supposed to be 3-D, it is not. When you are walking, you can walk in any direction. That part is 3-D. Unfortunately, when flying you cannot go in and out. That is because you are flying on a course with only slight deviations.
The stages, or Dreams, are divided into sections. Each character has four. The main idea is to collect 20 blue spheres and place them in the Idea Capture, a type of collection box. This will release a glowing sphere called an Idea, which then has to be taken to the start of the level. When you have repeated this four times it is time to do battle with the Boss.
The game also has loads of hidden goodies. Some of these items are hidden very well. Some things will be gained if you do a loop around a group of balls, or even ride up the water fountain to reach the background as well as some new rings. Some of the other stuff is not so well hidden, such as the ball cages. These are usually hidden at the far ends of the level's screen.